Medical practitioners often need ready access to a medical gown which they can quickly don over their clothing when working with patients or material in healthcare facilities, such as clinics, doctor's offices, hospitals, nursing homes, and the like. Typical medical gowns have a front apron portion to overlie the medical practitioners chest and upper leg areas, and a pair of sleeves into which the arms of the medical practitioner are inserted through an open back of the medical gown. The medical gown may also include ties or other structure to hold the sides of the back together. One type of medical gown that is widely used is referred to as a precaution gown or an isolation gown as it provides some level of protection to medical practitioners when dealing with patients and materials, such as by forming the medical gown of synthetic barrier materials. These gowns may be kept at the ready in a drawer of an isolation cart, for example, for ready use by a medical practitioner.
Medical gowns may either be disposable after use, or they may be reusable in that after being used, they may be laundered and returned to use. Each has its own concerns. For example, while a disposable medical gown may be less costly to acquire than a reusable medical gown, it will cost a healthcare facility more in the long run to acquire disposable medical gowns for each use than to acquire and utilize reusable medical gowns even considering laundry costs associated with reusable medical gowns. Similarly, there are environmental concerns with disposable medical gowns that are different from those related to reusable medical gowns.
Characteristic of reusable synthetic medical gowns is that they are not easily handled such as for folding in a manner to facilitate convenient point-of-use dispensing. As a consequence, they are often handled rather haphazardly, such as in a clump or other generally amorphous shape. By way of example, a number of reusable medical gowns may be stuffed as a loose group into the drawer of an isolation cart. When one of the reusable medical gowns is needed, a medical practitioner opens the drawer, reaches in, and pulls out a gown. However, having a collection of loose gowns creates difficulties in the management and handling of the reusable medical gowns.
After use of a reusable medical gown, a medical practitioner will typically remove the soiled gown and place it in a hamper bag, or the like, at the medical facility. The hamper bag, which may also have other soiled or used medical textile items therein, is then removed to a laundry location. The hamper bags are emptied, and the items sorted and laundered (including the hamper bags, if reusable). After laundering, clean, reusable medical gowns need to be delivered to or around the healthcare facility and distributed for use, such as by loading loose groups thereof in the isolation carts. Because current synthetic reusable medical gowns are not amenable to ready folding and stacking, they tend to be simply piled together in a large mass, delivered to the healthcare facility in that form, and then handled individually or in piles for distribution and dispensing throughout the healthcare facility.
Consequently, there may be reluctance on the part of operators of healthcare facilities to utilize reusable medical gowns and they may instead opt for disposable medical gowns, notwithstanding the added costs, and environmental and other drawbacks associated with disposable medical gowns. Many medical practitioners, however, may prefer reusable medical gowns for their performance and comfort as compared to disposable medical gowns.